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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Thoughts on the premiere of Chameleon in NYC

The graphic above is courtesy of my publicist Tiffany Carr & her team from Bella's House of PR. We ended up using it for our program cover and is now on our 5x7 flyer that we're currently cooking up for the Capital Fringe Festival in July. More on that later...

I always get a pretty bad case of post-show depression especially after big productions such as the premiere of Chameleon a couple weeks ago. I'm only beginning to fathom how much I worked on the premiere. This includes the many sleepless nights where I worked through the wee hours of the morning to send out press releases, researching grants, writing grants, finding rehearsal space for the following month, watching rehearsal footage, uploading excerpts on vimeo and youtube, updating this blog, adding a twitter account and presence, keeping up with social media networks, expanding the audience reach, talking to people on opposite ends, writing proposals, etc. and the list goes on... That work hasn't stopped b/c Chameleon still lives.

I spent the past week walking around the city, shopping, sleeping in, eating good food, teaching, and more wandering. I got bored towards the end of the week and started working on stuff for Capital Fringe Festival. I finished the press release and have been on the search for a lighting designer. (If you are in the NYC area or DC area and available in July - please contact me ASAP ahdancecompany@gmail.com) I rested that week and didn't show up to dance class until Saturday morning. It always feels good to take dance class, especially if its Stephanie's class and I get to sweat out all the toxins. I've been dancing pretty awesome lately and very happy about it. It feels really good.

I didn't feel so great the first Monday though, the exhaustion really got to me. I had migraines and was feeling jittery all over. A byproduct of traveling, performing, lack of sleep for the weeks before.

Backtracking...

Opening night was wonderful, we had a good showing and the Q+A was so insightful. A majority of the audience stayed until the very end. There were so many TCKs and folks that found out that they were either a CCK or a TCK. (I am so glad to have been able to help you discover that - it truly is rewarding when you combine your background and your resources, talent, and passion; trust me) If there's nothing I can stress enough, is that I truly believe that Chameleon can help educate, entertain, and foster cross-cultural communication among different communities. The arts is such a powerful tool in diplomacy. There was recently an article that was written in the past week in the NY Times about the Diplomacy of Dance.

The technical aspects of putting a theatrical production is precarious and can be difficult to synch up but on Friday evening, both the performance and the tech stuff synched up. Can't wait to see the video from that evening. We picked up our zipcar in Soho and ordered Lombardi's pizza for dinner. Tasted awesome on the drive through New Jersey. I drove halfway through to Delaware so Nick can take a nap before driving the remainder leg. The hotel bed and breakfast in DC was a welcome treat. We were in DC to perform a preview of Chameleon at the Meridian International Children's Festival and lead a five minute workshop with the children in attendance. The audience was receptive, and the children were super adorable. We had a ton of fun performing. The festival staff and the festival itself were crowded with families wanting to find out about each country. A sampling of embassies hosted the festival and I picked up some souvenirs from some of the booths. The festival reminds me of UN day, International Food festivals, and performing at UN Day at my international schools growing up. In a way, it felt very familiar, very cosy, and I felt "home". How ironic.

Fast forwarding...

I'm finally creating some kind of normalcy back in my schedule. I'm plugging forward and want to let you know more about the Capital Fringe Festival.

We have been invited to perform during the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington DC this July.

July 8-25 - Capital Fringe Festival, Washington D.C.

Here are the dates and times we are performing:Thursday July 8 @ 6pmSaturday July 10 @ 11amFriday July 23 @ 6pmSaturday July 24 @ 3:45pmSunday July 25 @ 2:15pm

2 comments:

Hi, Alaine! So nice to meet you through blog! I checked your dates. Unfortunately, we'll be moving overseas at the end of this month, June... I wish I knew about the Meridian International Children's Festival! My girls like to dance! How interesting that we lived in Singapore at the same time! I was there from '92 to '95 and graduated from the high school of Singapore American School. Best of luck in your tour in DC!! -Kaho

Hi Kaho! Wow, small world. I attended SAS too! '92-'96 I was at Overseas Family School for a bit before making the transition to SAS at the Woodlands campus. Do you get their Alumni magazine, SAS Journeys? I've been profiled in their a few times of the years. lol. Check out the alumni website of SAS and update your mailing address, they will send you a copy of the magazine. The most recent one highlighted SAS alumns in the TCK research/awareness world. Good luck with your move!

Travel with Alaine

Alaine Handa

A.H. Dance Company

About Us

Alaine Handa and Dancers has a mission: to present and support independent contemporary artists and companies worldwide. Through collaborations with local dancers and artists of other mediums, Alaine Handa and Dancers hope to share modern dance to communities that lack exposure to it. Ms Handa's movement vocabulary is quirky, athletic, and lyrical.